Some days I can’t decide what beverage to choose – a comforting cup of tea or a shot of Java. Technically you can get both at your local coffee house in the form of a “dirty chai”: chai latte with a shot of espresso.
But if you are at home…?
The T Shop offers a new chai blend with a base of high-grade Chinese black tea mixed with coconut, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and velvet chocolate, then a sprinkling of ground and whole coffee beans to jazz it up. We all know the warm bright spices in chai tea are so incredibly cozy, but the additional ingredients take it to over the top decadent.
With much anticipation I got out my milk pot and brewed up a batch of the tea. The chai had a subtler, richer flavor than many other chais, with a big hit of spice from the cardamom and cinnamon and a tasty depth from the coffee beans. And yet the tea held its own.
The beauty of making your chai at home is that you can have it any way you want it. To get the best result from your spices, it’s recommended the chai is brewed on the stove with 1 part milk and 1 part water. However, if you are time-starved, boil the kettle, steep the tea (3 minutes) and add steamed milk. Decadent. (Almost as good as a dirty chai, but better for you…that is, minus the instant chai mix coffee houses use.)
If coffee isn’t your…ummm…tea then you can use this blend in baked goods or just toss it in a cup to hold under your nose all day long because it SMELLS COMPLETELY AMAZING.